Category / Social Networks

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Horse_ebookmarklet turns the internet into engaging gibberish

You’ve probably heard of the @Horse_ebooks Twitter account. If you haven’t, why not? Unlike other bots on Twitter, @Horse_ebooks sends out cryptic messages that have oddly mesmerised the internet. @Fart says it best:

@Horse_ebooks is a Twitter bot designed and automated by apparently some Russian guy to sell worthless, horrible ebooks about horses. In order to avoid being detected as a spam bot, it occasionally posts a text snippet or two from one of its ebooks, chosen at random. I will never buy an ebook from it, but I will follow this Twitter account until I die or horses become extinct, whichever comes first.

Now, Ben Nyberg has developed a bookmarklet to spread the @Horse_ebooks hilarity all over the internet. When the Javascript is run, every image on a page becomes the trademark horse and all the text becomes delightful gibberish. Nyberg himself expected this to amuse people for about 20 minutes, but all I know is that I am doing it to every site I see. Here are some examples.

Carphone Warehouse

Digixav

Facebook

Google

Pinterest

So, what are you waiting for? Install the bookmarklet and try it yourself.

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Facebook IPO filing crashes the SEC website

Facebook has filed for its IPO, and crashed the website of the Securities and Exchange Commision. The filing explains that the site has over 483 million daily users and made a profit of $1bn last year. Madness? I think so. I would buy shares, but I’m not a multi-billionaire like Zuck.

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

The Poll: What should Facebook’s stock symbol be?

Facebook is expected to finally go public this week, with an expected IPO of up to $100,000,000,000. While this isn’t really news in itself, the imminence of the big day has led many people to ponder as to what the stock symbol of Zuckerberg’s baby will be. We have compiled a short list of likely candidates, but feel free to suggest your own in the poll below.

PS: FACE is already taken by Physicians Formula Holdings, Inc., but they are only valued at $40,818,000. If Zuckerberg wanted their symbol, he could just reach into his pocket and come out with a cosmetics company, so we aren’t ruling that out just yet.

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Angry Birds to win your Facebook hearts on Valentine’s Day

Rovio have announced that Angry Birds, our runner-up for Best App of 2011, will launch on Facebook on February 14th (aka Valentine’s Day) having already conquered every other platform under the sun. In the announcement that Time said was sure to kill office productivity, founder Peter Vesterbacka explained that the game would be free to play, but with premium content such as the Mighty Eagle available for the 40% of users who are expected to be willing to pay for such madness. Leaderboards will also find their way on to the Facebook version, cueing mass bird-flinging wars in the Digixav offices.

How will you spend your Valentine’s Day this year? Crushing pigs or with that special someone? Watch the video below to get a teaser of the game and then make a decision. Just don’t forget how angry these birds can get.

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Google+ opens to teens as Digixav jumps on the bandwagon

Google announced today that anybody old enough to have a Google account may now upgrade to their Facebook-killer of a social network Google+. This is something that we at Digixav have been waiting for since launch, so we hurried over when we heard the news and made ourselves a page. We will do the odd hangout to make podcasts and have lively tech debates and we will find a way for our posts to go into your feeds if you want to put us in a circle. So, if you actually use G+, head on over to our page and +1 us or something. You know you want to.

by James Hardy

Technophobia: Stop changing Facebook!

Technophobia is a column by James Hardy. Views expressed are not necessarily those of Digixav.

So now, apparently, we have to make a timeline of our lives on Facebook. Well no, Mark Zuckerberg, contrary to your belief, most people that use Facebook don’t spend their whole lives on it. Yes, there may be a select few that do in fact have Facebook as their home page, and spend ten hours each day constantly refreshing their news feed waiting for one of their nine hundred friends to write some bullshit about their ex.

Which brings me onto another point: Facebook statuses. Only post statuses which most of your friends will be able to understand. These are genuine examples from some of my Facebook friends.

OMG that was actually soo funny hahahahaha
Why waste your breath apologising? #Idiot.
You couldn’t trust him but you never said no.
Fucking twat. Why would u do that?
Ur 2 good 4 him hun. Dont take his shit.

Really? Maybe to two or three of your friends these will make perfect sense. Who knows, you could be a comical genius. But 95% of your friends will have no clue as to what is going on. Don’t bother. Save your breath.
Don’t get arthritis. Just text the friends that will understand!

This leads (sort of) on to my next point. Facebook ‘friends’. I think I have added perhaps a dozen people on Facebook. Everyone else has added me. Because to be honest, I can’t be arsed. I don’t use facebook all that much, at least not compared to some. I have 200 friends. This is a tiny amount compared to most of my friends. I kid you not, the person who wrote the first status above has over 1000 friends. One thousand friends! That is quite frankly, ridiculous. Nobody knows a thousand proper friends. It is just a lie. If I meet someone while on holiday in Mongolia for a few minutes, and add them on Facebook, they are not my friend. Life doesn’t work like that! Having thousands of Facebook friends doesn’t necessarily make you popular.

In that respect, I like Google+. They have circles set up for acquaintances, friends and family. And really, most of your facebook friends would should go in acquaintances. You could have 1000 acquaintances. You don’t have 1000 friends.

Note: That was sort of bullshit. I don’t even use Google+. I just know they have acquaintances.

Anyhoo, back to the main point. I have looked at someone’s profile with the timeline thing. It is confusing! As human beings, we do not like change. That is a fact. So if, Mark Zuckerberg, you change Facebook every month, people are going to be pissed off. Stop doing it!

And finally, to people who aren’t on Facebook. I don’t think that you are some strange, messed up people. I salute you. You are the black sheep. You have resisted Mark Zuckerberg’s attempts to get the whole world on Facebook.

Unlike the rest of us. The Zuckerzombies.

Don’t forget to like us on Facebook!

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

The Digixav Awards 2011

2012 is now here and Digixav’s first calendar year on the internet has come to an end. We decided that there was only one way to celebrate and that would be to give out some virtual awards to the techy things that have made this year great.

Continue reading →

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

The Poll: Do you use Google+?

Google+ was meant to be a Facebook killer, but interest seems to have waned among early adopters and many others have never even heard of the network, despite Google’s best attempts. This made us wonder who actually uses Google+? Vote below and let us know about your experiences in the comments.

by James Hardy

Technophobia: What’s with all the #hashtags?

Technophobia is a column by James Hardy. Views expressed are not necessarily those of Digixav.

A couple of months ago I set up a Twitter account. I haven’t been on it since. I don’t have (much of) a problem with Twitterers. I just don’t really get Twitter. I don’t give a toss if you’ve just had a shit. End of.

To me, Twatter Twitter just seems to be away for random people to legally stalk you. In fact, it’s encouraged! Is that wear society is heading? Instead of actually having to follow them and duck behind a parked car every time they look round, you just have to use a computer. It takes all the fun out of it.

I could sort of understand if you’re a celebrity then in might be a good way to let your fans know what you’re doing. But for a normal person? Why would you want to post tweets? Are there seriously going to be that many people who want to follow you? Just use Facebook. It’s not that bad!

OK, I get hashtags. It could be kind of useful if people want to talk about the same thing on Twitter. Xavier tells me that he found out about Gadhafi’s death by monitoring Twitter trends but, as I write this, some of the UK’s trending topics include #askmamakelly and the rumoured name of Lady GaGa’s new tour. Granted, these make a welcome change from crazed teenage girls who shouldn’t even be on Twitter wishing their favourite auto-tuned wannabe popstars goodnight and threatening to kill someone for going out with Justin bloody Bieber, but still, who actually gives a crap?

Even worse than this is the type of Twitterer who is so obsessed with the microblogging service that they use them in normal written text. NOOO! It’s not right! We can still write like normal, sane human beings. We haven’t completely sold our souls to social networking. Or have we?

Example:

‘You think it’s OK to do that? #dickhead’

No! You’re the dickhead for using a hashtag in normal writing! You’re not on Twitter. Leave hashtags where they belong!

So please, if you’re ever writing on a blog/Facebook/whatever, never, ever use a hashtag.

It just pisses people off. Or is it just me?

#stopthehashtag

(Do, however, follow Digixav on Twitter. We welcome your hashtags there! – ed)

Image from DeviantArt